Podcast Like It's 1999

Our holiday miniseries It’s Christmas and the Boys Are Sad continues with Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, a movie that feels breezy and charming on the surface and quietly devastating underneath. Phil and Emily are joined by author, video essayist, and YouTuber Lindsay Ellis to unpack why this film has only grown richer with time.The conversation explores the movie’s deceptive simplicity, Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance as a teenager performing adulthood, and Tom Hanks’ unusually vulnerable turn as an FBI agent defined by routine, loneliness, and obsession. They dig into Spielberg’s immaculate craft from match editing to tone control and why the film often gets overlooked in discussions of his “serious” work.They also discuss the film’s Christmas framing, its melancholy view of masculinity and authority, and how its themes of fraud, bureaucracy, and institutional power feel more prescient now than they did in 2002. Along the way, the trio debates the movie’s length, its cultural reception, and why Cat